1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to optical parametric oscillators in general, and in particular to infrared waveguide optical parametric oscillators. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated broad spectral band waveguide optical parametric oscillator.
2. Description of Related Art
An optical parametric oscillator (OPO) is a non-linear device that converts incident photons into photon pairs when the incident photons are optically excited at a power per unit area above a specific threshold level. As a function of wavelength, the threshold level is a characteristic of the non-linear material and the resonator of an OPO. An OPO is usually embodied in one of the two following forms: either in a doubly-resonant oscillator in which both generated optical beams are resonated or in a singly-resonant oscillator in which only one of the generated optical beams is in resonance.
The usage of OPOs for commercial and scientific applications demands concurrent achievement of several requirements. In particular, widely tunable laser radiation having high frequency stability and narrow linewidth can be utilized in applications within the field of high-resolution spectroscopy and metrology. Continuous-wave operation of laser sources is required to achieve linewidths on the order of one megahertz or less. Various continuous-wave lasers are available for different portions of the optical spectrum, for example, laser diodes in the 630-2000 nm range, titanium-sapphire lasers in the 710-1100 nm range, dye lasers in the 400-800 nm range and color center lasers in the 2.0-3.5 μm spectral regions.
The generation of broadband infrared laser radiation generally requires multiple lasers and wavelength shifters. The usage of multiple lasers and wavelength shifters, which are typically discrete components, requires a great deal of laser and optomechanical engineering. The present disclosure provides an improved broad spectral band waveguide OPO that is capable of generating broadband infrared laser radiation without using multiple lasers and discrete wavelength shifters.